(Top): Local train drivers and guards summoned to Nizam Palace for questioning by the CBI. (Below): Sleuths of the central investigation agency in a huddle in between bouts of questioning on Wednesday. Pictures by Amit Datta

The mortician who had cleaned Rizwanur Rahman’s body before his burial is convinced that the 30-year-old graphics designer was murdered.

“I have been cleaning dead bodies for the past 20 years and I am sure that he was murdered. I had examined his injuries closely while washing the body and they could not have been caused by a suicide attempt on the railway tracks,” Dilawar Hussain told Metro.

“From the nature of the injuries on his body, it seems that he was hit with a weapon on the back of his head and then his neck was slashed,” added the 55-year-old, who works in a coffin shop on Bright Street.

Neither the CID nor the CBI — the two probe agencies entrusted with the task of finding the truth behind the mysterious death of Rizwanur Rahman — has questioned Hussain, the last man to see the body up close.

Hussain recounted how the back of Rizwanur’s head was completely smashed but his head had not been severed.

The first post-mortem report had stated that Rizwanur’s head had been almost severed.

“The back of his head was smashed and there were cut marks on the left side of his neck, his left cheek and on his back. The head was not severed. His left leg was fractured,” revealed Hussain.

He refused to believe that Rizwanur had been run over by a train at Patipukur on the morning of September 21.

“I have been cleaning bodies of suicide and accident victims run over by trains for the past three decades. The injuries on his body could not have been caused by a running train,” insisted Hussain.

“If a person lies down on the tracks, his body is cut into pieces. If a person only puts his head on the tracks, then the body is decapitated. But that was not the case here. How could investigative agencies say that he had committed suicide'” demanded Hussain, an expert in cleaning the body before the burial ceremony.

Citing an example where a head was severed from the body after a 35-year-old man who committed suicide on the rail tracks in Park Circus six months ago, he reasoned: “If Rizwanur had put his head on the tracks in front of an approaching train, how was only the back of his head smashed but not severed'”

Hussain also pointed out that “the face” bore no injury marks. “The faces of those being run over by trains are smashed, often so badly that it becomes difficult to identify them. But there was only a cut mark on the left cheek of Rizwanur. I have never seen the body of a train victim with such injury marks.”

Hussain recounted how he had to fill the gaping holes on Rizwanur’s neck, cheek and back with cotton and applied attar before the body was taken away for the last rites.

“From my experience I can say that the injuries on his neck were caused by a sharp weapon and not the wheels of a train,” stressed Hussain.